In Fashion, Who Will Cancel The Cancelers?

For the past five years, a “cancelation” at the hands of the Instagram account Diet Prada ranked high on the long list of things fashion brands had to worry about. With its two million followers, catty tone, and encyclopedic knowledge of runway history, Diet Prada has been called “the most feared Instagram account” in the industry by the Business of Fashion. The two founders (anonymous when they founded the account in 2014 but revealed as fashion professionals Tony Liu and Lindsey Schuyler in a 2017 story on the Fashion Law) called out brands that appeared to commit what is often considered fashion’s original sin: knocking off other designers. Fashion’s problems go far beyond that, of course, and soon cultural appropriation, the lack of diversity in publishing and fashion houses, and hits and misses on the red carpet all became fodder for a Diet Prada call-out. The repercussions were real: appearing in the account’s crosshairs could get your fashion show canceled (Dolce & Gabbana’s 2018 Shanghai show), a problematic accessory pulled (a Gucci balaclava that resembled blackface in 2019), the diversity of your design team challenged (Prada and Gucci, in 2019), or your reputation merely denigrated (Philipp Plein, often). Read more at GQ.